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Terms and their attributes
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Maximum term length
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2,147,483,646 bytes (~2 gigabytes).
In other words, effectively unlimited.
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Length of scope notes
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2,147,483,646 bytes (~2 gigabytes).
In other words, effectively unlimited.
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Classification codes
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Yes. User-defined attributes fulfill this requirement. Create a "Classification" attribute list, populate it with attributes, and attach them to the your terms.
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Notes on term history
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Yes. There is no special field for maintaining term history. Simply create a user-defined field called "Term History".
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Notes on term usage
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Yes. There is no special field for describing term usage. Simply create a user-defined field called "Term Usage".
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Origin/authority for terms
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Yes. There is no special field for origin/authority information. In most cases, authority information can be described using attributes and origin information can be maintained in a user-defined field named "Origin". Note that all user-defined fields can hold active URLs.
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Term status (e.g. candidate)
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Yes. Candidate terms would normally be placed within an unpublished group. Other status information is typically best expressed using attributes.
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Other predefined attributes
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There are no predefined attributes. All attributes are user-defined.
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User-defined attributes
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Unlimited (see note).
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Case preserved
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Yes.
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Case significant
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No. All sorting and tracking of duplicate names occurs in a case-insensitive manner. All relationships are formed using unique IDs so the case of names is largely irrelevant.
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Symbols and spaces allowed in terms
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Yes. Unicode® is supported in both item names and user-defined fields.
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Term relationships
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BT/NT, RT/RT, USE/UF
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Yes. Also Synonym Of/Synonym For and Obsoletes/Obsoleted By relationships.
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USE X AND Y (semantic factoring)
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No. Variant terms can have multiple Use relationships but there is no explicit support for "USE+".
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USE X OR Y (alternative terms)
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Yes. A variant term can have any number of Use relationships.
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Multiple BT links per term (polyhierarchy).
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Yes. A preferred term can have any number of explicit BT or NT relationships.
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No. of hierarchical levels
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Unlimited (see note).
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User-defined relationships
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No (not yet).
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Top term indicator
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Yes.
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Orphan term indicator
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Yes.
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Multilingual thesauri
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Unicode® is supported in both item names and user-defined fields so Cognatrix intrinsically supports any sequence of characters for which Mac OS X knows the Unicode definition.
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Cognatrix 1.5.x (or earlier)
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There are no additional relationship types to indicate that terms are language equivalents.
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Cognatrix 1.6 (or later; currenty in beta)
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Each item has a language code (the default is “en” for “English”). Where two terms have different language codes, the relationship types of Exact Equivalent, Inexact Equivalent, Broader Equivalent and Narrower Equivalent are available. There is no design limit on the number of language codes that can be defined. There is no design limit on the number of language-equivalent relationships that a term may participate in.
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Input and editing
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Import from file
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Yes. Import is supported from both plain text and XML. In the case of the former, tab-separated text can be dropped onto the Cognatrix window. In the case of the latter, a separate application (CognatrixImporter) is used.
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Input from keyboard
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Yes.
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Editing of terms individually
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Yes.
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Consistency checks
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Yes. Duplicate names and suspect relationships are flagged.
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Loops detected
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Yes. Via suspect relationships mechanism.
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Terms multiply linked detected
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Yes, by prevention. Neither Cognatrix nor CognatrixImporter will allow two terms to be linked more than once.
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Output to screen
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Selection criteria for display of sub-set
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Yes. Filtering can restrict to a subset of types and/or items containing certain strings (wildcards are implicit). Sub-sets can also be selected by attribute(s).
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Hierarchical display
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Yes. Tree view is always maintained in hierarchical order.
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Alphabetical display
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Yes. List view can be sorted according to a variety of fields, one of which is the item name.
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Facet indicators
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Yes. Facets provide automatic qualifiers for child terms.
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Sibling terms sorted in hierarchical display
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Optional. Cognatrix does not impose any order on your hierarchy. Where you put things is where they stay. Nevertheless, the Sort Children command is always ready to sort sibling terms, if that is what you want.
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Classified (systematic) display
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Yes. List view can be sorted according to a variety of fields, including by item type and by attribute(s). Attributes can be used to implement any arbitrary classification scheme.
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KWIC or KWOC display
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No.
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Scrolling and browsing
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Yes. Supported in both tree and list views. Disclosure triangles in tree view collapse and expand the hierarchy. List view filtering can restrict what is displayed. The Find, Next and Previous commands also assist in browsing.
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Hypertext navigation (jumps between terms)
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Yes. Double-clicking on an entry in a term's relationships list jumps to the related term.
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Editing of terms while displayed as list
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Yes. Item fields can be manipulated in list view in exactly the same manner as in tree view. The only exception is that items can only be dragged to a new position within the hierarchy while in tree view.
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Output to printer or file
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Selection criteria for printing
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Yes. Printing and xml export work with either the full thesaurus or a selection. To print or export a selection, you start by selecting a subset as described above under Selection criteria for display of sub-set.
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Hierarchical printout
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Yes. You can print either the full tree or restrict to a certain depth.
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Alphabetical printout
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Yes. An alphabetical index is printed whenever the hierarchy is printed.
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Facet indicators in printout
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Yes. Facets provide automatic qualifiers for child terms.
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Sibling terms sorted in hierarchical printout
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Optional. The print maintains the same order as the display. If you choose to sort sibling terms in the display (see above), the print will show that order too.
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Classified (systematic) printout
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Printing works with either the full thesaurus or a selection. To produce a classified printout, you first select a subset as described above under Classified (systematic) display and then choose Print.
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KWIC or KWOC printout
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No.
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Export to file in a data exchange format
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Yes. Export supported in the following formats:
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Ergonomics
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Ease of installation
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Cognatrix is installed by dragging its icon from the downloaded disk image or CD and dropping it into your Applications folder. On first launch, you are prompted to enter your registration details.
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User interface
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Cognatrix employs a single-window paradigm. Most operations can be performed in the main document window or its associated drawers. Most editing occurs in situ (eg double-clicking a term name prepares the name for editing). The Find... and Inspector windows are common to all open documents.
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Simultaneous creation of terms and relationships
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Yes, for implicit BT:NT. XML import via CognatrixImporter creates all the valid terms and explicit relationships that are described by the XML.
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Drag and drop relationships
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No. Drag and drop is used for moving items within the hierarchy. Relationships are formed by selecting the items to be related and then clicking the Relate button.
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Printed documentation coverage
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Extensive user guides cover both Cognatrix and Cognatrix Importer.
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Printed documentation quality
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The user guides are distributed in Adobe Acrobat® Portable Document Format (PDF). The guides are suitable for printing on either Quarto or A4 paper. Although the guides have been designed with the capabilities of a single-sided greyscale printer in mind, optimum results will be obtained on a duplexing CMYK laser printer.
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On-line help
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The PDF user guides also fulfill the role of online help. Tables of contents are bookmarked and cross-references are hyperlinked.
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General factors
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No. of terms
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Unlimited (see note).
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Related database available
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No. Thesaurus information is stored in self-contained Property Lists (XML files).
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